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Rive Gauche: Lords a leaping – Schadenfreude and VUVUZELAS!!

Behold… the most senior judges in the United Kingdom…The Supremes - distinguished men all, bar one, a very distinguished lady lawyer, Baroness Hale. They deal with the most pressing legal issues of the day and one would have thought, would have more on their collective minds than worrying about titles. It would appear not. Let me say at once, that I admire our sense of nationhood, I enjoy our not always glorious history and I would prefer us to remain one nation. I am persuaded by the sentiment behind independence and I am certainly attracted, in good time, by a Republic. It matters not what I think – for I am going to change nothing by tilting at windmills.

I do, however, think that the establishment of The Supreme Court was a good thing. I do like the separation of the judiciary from the executive and I do like the fact that new justices to the Supreme Court will not be made peers. I am, therefore, a bit surprised to find that The Supremes are pressing for Sir John Dyson, newly elevated, to be given a courtesy title on the ground that Scottish judges can wander about – some quite junior judges – calling themselves Lord This and Lord That. Joshua Rozenberg writes of these matters in the Guardian. To my mind Ken Clarke, The new Lord Chancellor who, I assume, has not given himself a peerage or courtesy title, must resist this call and, thereby ensure that the judiciary is kept separate from the geegaws and baubles (and influences?) of State. I appreciate that I am in the minority on this – but I would like to see all judges separated from their titles in time believing, as I do, that their appointment and distinction comes from their experience and not because they are given the titles of a bygone age. I don’t suppose it really matters at the end of the day….but, that is my view… for what it is worth.

It is always good to see schadenfreude and hypocrisy in action.RollonFriday continues to give College of Law CEO, Nigel Savage, a going over...“RollOnFriday can reveal an email sent by the College of Law Chief Executive Nigel Savage to his staff to explain why they’d been awarded a 2% pay rise. Which contrasts very interestingly with the 40% bonus that he trousered himself.” I rather suspect that many of those I knew when RollonFriday first appeared in the early 2000s (I enjoyed posting myself and, indeed, meeting many as Brigadier Grappa) are probably doing rather nicely. Some of them WERE partners in law firms then – many now will be. The generation now using RollonFriday, or a percentage, can look forward to very nice PEPs in future. Law is a business like everything else. If you don’t like the terms and conditions, and collective action cannot force change – do something else. I don’t know the detail of lecturer salaries at the College of Law. When I ran BPP Law School we certainly paid well above the public sector norm at universities. That may have changed. Hey ho!. I suspect the owners of RollonFriday are trousering a few bob – and why not?!

A tax partner at Freshfields’ Madrid office has published an article in the Spanish economic publication “Negocio” criticising her colleagues for watching football. At 9:45 at night.Silvia Paternain gives vent to her irritation at the male lawyers in her department watching the Spain v Honduras match, while her female colleagues – who have no interest in the beautiful game – are toiling away at their desks. She argues that it doesn’t matter if it’s late in the evening – there’s still work to be done………

They talk about work / life balance at law firms… perhaps they you talk more about getting a life?

I am puzzled as to why there is so much interest in the PEP figures (profits) published by law firms. I was always brought up to believe that discussing money was impolite. Now law firms are almost vying to get the news out on Twitter, Facebook groups and in the legal press. I am all for open information, but need we be subjected to press releases about it? Do lawyers really want more vilification and ridicule from the public?

Absolutely agree with you about this “Titles” business. There is no need whatsoever for peerages to be granted and this is particularly so now that the Supreme Court is separate from parliament. Sir John Dyson is still “Sir John” and the process of divorcing the court from peerages had to start somewhere. Separation of powers was the whole rationale for spending all that money on renovating the building and creating this court. In any event, Sir John will probably be joined by another “non-peer” Justice later this year since Lord Saville has announced his retirement from the court.

Having said all of this, the “gongs” business always seems to assume enormous importance within certain circles. You might think that the Ministry of Justice had much more important fish to fry but they recently put on their website an item about their “star-studded” honours list. Quite ridiculous!

PEP has become the symbol of success for law firms. It announces to the world that I AM GREAT! LOOK UPON MY PEP AND WEEP!

It’s virtually meaningless as it can be easily manipulated by firms, shifting partners from equity to salaried, etc. At the top end it is probably a good indicator but lower than that, who knows? If I were the client, I would be somewhat more than bemused by these shenanigans.

Excellent to see you have remained loyal to ROF all these years Charon! Well I remember introducing it to you way back in the day and even introducing you to the concept of blogging as I recall. And look at you now…

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